Do not Harden your Heart!
Hebrews 3:7-8
Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: Today if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as [happened] in the rebellion [of Israel] and their provocation and embitterment [of Me] in the day of testing in the wilderness.
The Holy Spirit wants to encourage us today in our spiritual journey on this earth by saying: if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts. What does it mean to “harden your heart”? A hardened heart is a heart that has grown callous, unfeeling, uncaring and insensitive toward God and others because of difficult trials or prolonged hardships. When God brought the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt He performed many mighty miracles to set His people free. The Israelites stood in awe and praised God as He opened the Red Sea and swallowed up their enemies. Now they were on the way to the Promised Land! However they had to go through the wilderness before they could reach this land of milk and honey. The journey through the wilderness was trying and many started to complain about everything; tired of what we are eating, tired of the desert, tired of Moses, tired of waiting on God . We can transpose the word “tired “with the word “angry” because they were feeling extremely embittered and irritated about the long duration of their circumstances. Their previous grateful hearts toward God had turned into constant complaining hearts! Negativity was replacing all their positive outlooks for the future. In this numbed out, angry, complaining state they moved into the trenches of settled rebellion, they wanted it their way and didn’t care about or believe in God’s way. Then their unbelief shut them out from receiving His promises and rest. In life’s school we will all have times of spiritual wilderness experiences when circumstances seem all wrong and the promises we believe God for feel unattainable. Remember the path to set us up for unbelief today is the same as with the children of Israel; hard, unfeeling hearts then follows settled rebellion or opposition and defiance toward God. Let us be determined to choose not to harden our hearts by working through our negative feelings and letting them go to God. Subsequently by holding fast and firm to the belief in our loving, benevolent God let us receive by faith what He has promised us then we will be able to enter into the rest He has for all His children.